DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's description): The candidate is interested in how chromatin structure and its nuclear organization into functional domains regulates gene expression in eukaryotic cells, and how this regulation is perturbed in disease states. In yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae the candidate has identified a cis-acting yeast DNA sequence that acts as a boundary between repressed and active chromatin. A systematic genetic and biochemical analysis of this yeast boundary element will be undertaken to determine the trans-acting protein factors required for its function, and to screen for other yeast DNA sequences possessing boundary activity.